Hungry Birds by kerzak 2017-12-27T13:33:31Z ♥ 0
Cool and thematic concept, a bit tricky to play alone, but I can certainly see the multiplayer fun potential. I'm thinking running lean to get ahead, then devour all the insects to starve the other player.
Given how few keys are needed, I could even imagine having a 3 or 4 player mode.
LD43 — Sacrifices must be made (30)
Deadline of the Dead by _for_science 2018-12-28T21:06:42Z ♥ 1
I got eaten by the zombies on every playthrough (the spawnrate for jobs at the end seems to get low) but I had a blast nonetheless. A very complete package for a jam, with a comedy style that nicely combines laughs and cringes.
I don't suppose the source code is available somewhere? There were plenty of small tricks and techniques in this title that I'd like to find out more about. I see you already explained a bit about the markers, which is one of them: That was supposed to be in my game, but with time running out and no way how to even start I just had gave all the targets an audio loop with falloff volume and called it a day. Very cool how you managed to get a good system working.
Goblinz Demizess by Lodugh 2018-12-28T20:27:53Z ♥ 1
Hey, all my goblins made it on my second try. Guess I got a good run of "luck" there. Makes up for letting only one traumatized goblin survive on my first go.
The choose-your-items start was a cool idea, but I never needed any items besides food, water and the bow. Though I presume there are random events that need the others too. This page's screenshot shows some injured goblins, I'm guessing that's what the bandages were for.
The bleak mood is very good, although the goblin-narrated opening felt a bit too lighthearted. Perhaps it was meant to let us know of the innocent mindset of our golbins before sending them on through their ardeous journey, but it didn't really work that way for me.
Nonetheless, a good, atmospheric entry.
Manned Missile Master by Capital-Asterisk 2018-12-28T20:06:52Z ♥ 1
I'll admit, I didn't get the last level. I got to within 150 of the target, but that tiny twisting letterbox where I couldn't even tell which way it was turning was too much for me. And dodging turret fire does feel a bit RNG-ish. Still, a lot of fun to be had here. Well done.
He-Who-Is-Beyond-The-Sun by Joror 2018-12-28T19:48:53Z ♥ 1
This is certainly one of the most complete game experiences I've seen this jam. Playing a lovecraftian monster with card battles is orginal and entertaining. I did run into some bugs though. One battle where my secrecy just wouldn't drop below 0 but I couldn't end the combat because I couldn't pick up the reward, and entering combat without an opponent. But this certainly has potential as a full game.
Terrifying Rocket Zest by Hindbodes 2018-12-27T16:10:00Z ♥ 0
A cool game concept. The game is somewhat tricky to control, and damage is pretty unavoidable when squeezing through the narrow gaps between the huge astroids, but hey, sacrifices must be made, right? It's also fun that you have to balance the number of sacrificies, because keeping everything means you won't make it, but ditching everyone makes you accelerate way to fast. I gave into peer pressure and ditched the fat friend right from the start though :p
I do agree that rotating makes the game so difficult to control that it might as well be scrapped. Strafing isn't perfect but it gets you to the end much easier. Maybe making the rotating function less "sticky" would help.
Never Coming Back by HDugmag 2018-12-27T15:55:13Z ♥ 1
A pretty neat looking game, especially the arena. As others have mentioned, it would've been nice to have a little bit of (audio) feedback when firing or getting hit. And as for the sacrificing, I kept tanking one gun's accuracy every time and nothing else. At some point the extra 40% off of the already minute accuracy made little difference, and I had still had one long-range gun if I needed it.
Pyres by flynn 2018-12-27T15:42:35Z ♥ 1
This is a good looking, highly atmospheric game. The grim start screen and the bloodsplatters as the battle rages are a nice touch.
My main beef is how long it takes to fight, and that there is no time acceleration option. Even on heavy attack, it takes a long time and on defense (which from what I saw does give a much better k/d ratio, but I'm not sure) it takes forever. In fact, the defense of my third city is being fought as I write this, and it shows no signs of stopping :p I'd add a time-accelrator option (which of course also increases the losses in your other cities), combined with a bit more insight on what the effect of the various settings actually are.
But still a very original concept. A post-jam version with rebalanced combat and insight has good potential.
Sacrizism by Erkberg 2018-12-27T15:28:53Z ♥ 1
Very fun game, but very hard. The post-jam self-sacrifice was the only ending I ever got to :)
Breach Squad by guoboism 2018-12-22T12:51:12Z ♥ 0
This is your publisher. I'm afraid we're dropping your game and your studio from our lineup. This is purely due to our internal shift in priorities and has nothing whatsoever to do with our company being a bunch of jackbootlickers who will do anything to keep that sweet, sweet Chinese market open.
A very nice and polished experience. The intro movie was a nice touch, and the TBS gameplay was solid. It could've stood to be a little harder though. It took a while for me to figure out that there was a "weapon triangle", but I still only had some slight difficulty with the last mission. (Or was it part of the social commentary that the protesters get curbstomped?)
The Final Seconds by mikethewayne 2018-12-22T12:10:52Z ♥ 1
A very fun if teeth-grindingly difficult game. It is so very, very easy to take the wrong action when defusing the bomb, and since that's an immediate game over, I never made it past day 4.
I agree that a progress bar for officers would be a good addition.
Cultist of sacrifices by falak 2018-12-22T11:40:41Z ♥ 1
There's quite a bit of content here, having multiple stages to the level is very nice. The audio... wasn't too good. I presume it was deliberately ridiculous, but it was used too much for it to remain funny.
Reaching The Sky by SKDF 2018-12-22T11:26:12Z ♥ 1
I'll give you points for originality if nothing else. This was almost dadaist game design. But that did mean solving the puzzles felt less "aha!" and more "okay... so that's how it goes apparently" And yes, I did make it to the good ending.
A Way Home by CaptainPilot 2018-12-22T11:07:34Z ♥ 0
A good looking game, and the timed-rubicube gameplay was a neat original idea. But the fun was hampered by the unreasonably short timeframes in which you're allowed to rotate. Even if you see a way to rotate your squadron to let the astroids pass through, you'll probably fail because you can at best rotate twice before the astroid hits.
Also, the game doesn't actually end if you complete it it seems. It just loads a new system name and no astroids appear. I couldn't even see my final score.
Trojka by dikkop 2018-12-22T10:54:34Z ♥ 0
Very good graphics, but the gameplay was pretty tricky and not too satisfying.
And just to check, was this game inspired by a Dutch song by any chance?
VOID_SHOT by NNNIKKI 2018-12-17T22:23:26Z ♥ 0
Neat implementation of the theme. The playing field was a bit small, leaving you little room to maneuver. And with enemies being as fast as you, there's little you can do on the keyboard if one gets behind you. It might not have been a bad idea to remove the keyboard controls altogether, or not make them default. The mouse is indeed a lot easier.
Slime Girls by nervous-composers 2018-12-17T21:45:09Z ♥ 1
A very nice looking concept. The dying to solve the puzzles was a good implementation of the theme, it just didn't feel like much of a sacrifice without any lives or score. Then again, I died an embarassing number of times, so a hard lifecap might have been too harsh. But perhaps use that ending level to give a final tally of how many poor slime girls you got killed with your incompetence or something could be an easy tweak to the theme.
The level design was a mixed back, with ingenious shortcuts but also weird paths to nowhere and oddly placed traps. Still, graphically it was quite impressive. Out of curiosity, did you attend this year's Berlin Unity Conference. I was there, and the Robby Robber tutorial I did there looked a bit like this game design wise, with the tiles and lighting.
Downgradius by xjcl 2018-12-15T22:51:38Z ♥ 0
I just managed level 1, but that's as far as it went. This game is pretty hard.
It's a solid, functional game, but without much of a wow-factor.
Apotheosis by citsua 2018-12-14T15:52:06Z ♥ 1
It's a testament to this game's cool core concepts that I enjoyed my time despite 3 of my 4 playthroughs running into problems. It's fun to experiment, move around and kill, and there's a good variaty of powers you need to do without. Now as to those problems:
My first playthrough I stopped because heal was bound by default to a, not q, which is of course also move left. I had to alt-f4 my way out and change it.
My second playthrough I tried to rush through the tutorial, and at the last point pressed q before I took damage. Since there weren't any enemies to kill to recharge healing, I was now stuck and had to do the whole tutorial again. I think the tutorial is great, but it takes a non-insignificant amount of time and isn't skipable if you start the game from scratch. I know you can restart if you complete, and I assume if you die (I never did, permantenly anyway, thanks Hades!), but I didn't find any way to restart on command except alt-f4, which put you into the tutorial again.
My third playthrouh I ascended. Huray!
My fourth playthrough I wanted to try keeping different weapons. However, when I got to the first warrior boss cube, I tried Hermes-Dashing, which knocked him remarkably far (is he lighter than regular enemies?), over a wall, and out of the level. Now I couldn't reach him or kill him. At which point I decided it was time to fill in the rating :)
And as the last two points, a lot of walls got invisible if the camera was closed, and I don't know if it's on purpose but I couldn't tell the difference between wizard-cubes with 3-round bursts and single shots until they shot me.
Still, like I said, I'm quite impressed with the core gameplay. Most of the problems I encountered are easily patchable should you feel like a post-jam version.
NUVOGEN by Dmitry Kaidash 2018-12-14T15:16:29Z ♥ 1
A fun and graphically impressive title. Is there a finish state? If so, I kept dying before I reached it.
The main suggestion I'd want to give is to improve the feedback the player receives. There's no indications you're getting hit, no indication an enemy is going to teleport, the white dying flashes are visible but also obscure a lot, and I couldn't notice any charge-indicator on the weapon.
RAT LABS by Flatgub 2018-12-12T21:35:51Z ♥ 1
A very amusing and tinker-ish game. Unfortunately I got repeated crashes when trying to confirm completion of the "Sacrifices... for Science" quest line. This was my error:
___________________________________________ ############################################################################################ FATAL ERROR in action number 1 of Draw Event for object oPlayer:
Variable oCollisionManager.(100102, -2147483648) not set before reading it. at gml_Object_oPlayer_Draw_64 ############################################################################################ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- stack frame is gml_Object_oPlayer_Draw_64 (line -1)
Neon Tank Warrior by wolar 2018-12-12T21:07:14Z ♥ 1
This may very well be my favourite entry yet. The neon look was striking (any chance you could post a link to the source code? I'm curious how those kinds of graphics are made in Unity), the gameplay solid and the sacrifice theme was implemented well. I like how you get so many mulligans, yet your sacrifice total is told at the end so you can go back and beat your record. Very well done.
For The Gods by Jamscript 2018-12-12T20:50:56Z ♥ 0
A very nice concept, but I found it hard to figure out what determines income. Having 4 houses and two chicken pens, buying an extra chicken in one pen increased my income, but buying one in the other decreased it. Plopping down a gold mine(?) also seemed to decrease it. Also, I agree with @alleskapaul , the colors, especially the green grass, aren't very easy on the eyes.
Fire Swept by Eric Smith 2018-12-12T20:14:43Z ♥ 1
This is a very ambitious title with a great concept. I like the look, the sizable map, and the mechanical ideas. What the game still lacks is polish and balancing. I started the game bankrupt because there were no fires in the first two years, and I was dinged 500 bucks upkeep cost regardless. Then I got dinged for the sizable body counts of my house fires, but all the casualties happen before my truck and car even got to the left edge of the map. And with the water-radius of the engine being small, forest fires are hard to deal with. Having the response team clear what you hope the next spreading locations of the fire (which sometimes jump over an empty hex, and sometimes don't) and then twiddling your thumbs as the blaze burns itself out was all I could do. I found selecting and moving units around also a bit finicky. I often found myself moving the wrong unit because I'd selected the wrong unit and didn't know. The models not ending their move on the center of the hex didn't help with that. In short, I really like the puzzle concept of this game, but there's currently a bit too many random and/or unclear mechanics that leave me feeling that my failures are beyond my control.
Scapegoat by aurel 2018-12-11T23:35:28Z ♥ 2
The audio and graphics are great, but I didn't find the gameplay as enjoyable. At the first puzzle with 2 buttons the goat only bothered to stop for the carrot about 10% of the time. I got stuck after opening the first gate, because when I took the path back to the goat and stood on the button to open the gate, another gate closed behind me and I couldn't find any way to open it again, leaving me no way to bring the goat up. No other commenters seem to have a problem with it, so it's quite possible that I simply suck at this game and missed an obvious solution. I played the original version, so perhaps it's also easier with the fixed version.
So, amazing production values but sadly not fun enough for me to keep trying to get through it.
Unnecessary Evil by Eva Abollivier 2018-12-10T00:36:16Z ♥ 3
This is some superb level design that, combined with the theme, leads you to assume one solution when a harder but better one exists. I don't think the character abilities should've been explaind as some suggested, as that would ruin the effect. Thanks for making me feel like a smarty pants by letting me figure out the twist ahead of time from the title alone. I gave the theme 5 stars, because I love the evil subversion you made with it.
One note: I ran into a bug where pressing R resetted the level with all the characters missing, so I had to start the game over.
The last outpost by Istalri 2018-12-10T00:13:46Z ♥ 2
This was certainly a novel and theme-fitting take on the Tower Defense genre. I personally disagree that you should get coins for killing enemies or clearing waves. It really fits the theme that you can only get cash by sacrificing your high level units. It ultimately works the same as kills->coins, but you have to decide when to sacrifice a high level unit to build several low level ones. Of course, to make that choice more meaningful, something could be done about the game balance, specifically the enormous spike at level 10.
Other small suggestions: A how-to page, with some descriptions of the various units and the basic sacrifice mechanic, a way to get back to the main menu (if there is a shortcut key already, put it in the how-to guide), and a fix to the names of units when you click on them (mage is also archer there, and priest is in a different language). Somewhat more involved suggestions might be a small color change or aura on higher leveld units to easily spot them, and making mages deal splash damage so level 10 isn't completely impossible.
But despite the lack of polish, I commend this game for its fun and fitting resource mechanic.
Edit: I see the itch.io page does list what the units do and what the basic gist is (I never figured out what knights were for). Maybe put that info on this page too, I missed it when I played it.
Hope springs eternal. by Skosnowich 2018-12-09T23:37:47Z ♥ 1
I'll admit, it wasn't until I read the comments that I figured out how to beat the last level. Even if I managed to weather the storm of missiles until the station's ammo ran out, I never had enough ammo left to put a dent in it, and the fighters lasers seemed so pitfully inaddequate to thin out the missile storm. But in the end, I had gotten the game's genre wrong. Well played sir.
Space Battle Zero by rumor 2018-12-09T23:11:32Z ♥ 1
This is a wonderfully looking game. I assume that the earth and skybox were the assets you didn't make for the jam. If so, consider the effects and the space ship models to be rated 4 stars.
The mechanical concept is certainly cool, although it lacked some transparancy (How much faster does my gun recharge with 2 pips? What's the difference between bolt and laser? What hits can and can't my shield take). Also, the idea of sacrificing orbital height for extra speed sounded like a great fit to the theme if it had had a bit more impact.
But this is certainly a wonderful game for a jam, and one I'd be interested to see further refined.
Lanternal : A Mage’s Sacrifice by Liz Cooper-G4G 2018-12-09T21:20:41Z ♥ 2
A good looking title that uses the theme well. It would've fit even better if more of the difficulty increase came from the sacrifices, rather than the increasing spawn rate. But there were definitely some very interesting sacrifices to make, with good "builds" emerging ("I already sacrificed vision, so I might as well sacrifice my attack range since I can't see those enemies anyway")
Death Metal Crowd Pusher by WizardOfOzzy 2018-12-04T02:57:57Z ♥ 4
Never have I been so eager to have a fat guy go crowd surfing. A neat concept, with great visuals and awesome audio.